Money can’t buy you love—despite the amorous hype spewing
from florists and chocolatiers. But for a nominal fee you can catch the
first couple of Americana folk/rock at the Turf. From Sonny and Cher,
to Kurt and Courtney, husband and wife acts are that strange anomaly in
the music world that often go painfully awry. Not so for Brett and Rennie
Sparks, aka the Handsome Family. Married more than 16 years, they’ve
foregone the dangers of downhill skiing and dodged an appetite for heroin
in favor of a prolific career that’s produced several acclaimed
CDs. The key to their musical and marital success? Writing and singing
about destruction and despair: “We should have been dancing / like
lovers in a movie / but I fell and cut my head in the snow. / I wanted
to tell you all the ways that I loved you, / but instead I got sick on
the train.” (“A Beautiful Thing” from In the Air).
Brett’s haunting bass timbre resonates long after the show has ended.
Rennie’s a bass-playing lyricist, published writer and painter.
With soul searching, Southern gothic songwriter Jim White. 8 p.m. $12. 21+. University & Snelling Aves., St. Paul. 651-647-0486.
NANCY SARTOR

Cloud Cult
The Varsity

The Varsity continues to take advantage of its inherent charms with this
bill headlined by Cloud Cult. Often venues constitute nothing more than
a space in which a show happens, with only a tangential relationship between
the aesthetics of the band and the feel of the place itself, but Cloud
Cult will be sure to take good advantage of the environs with film projections
and onstage painters. Last year’s Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus
continues to pay dividends for attentive listeners, and I’m still
regularly awed by its scope, sound and heart-on-sleeve aesthetic. In that
last quality it reminds me a lot of Built to Spill’s There’s
Nothing Wrong with Love and its wide-open, starry-eyed optimism in
the face of the regular battering that life hands us. Hope seems to be
in somewhat short supply these days, so you should take your uplift where
you can get it. Openers Cowboy Curtis and Bill Mike Band stand on two
sides of the record releasing divide: Cowboy Curtis’ much anticipated
sophomore album should be dropping anytime now, while Bill Mike’s
debut has been settling into local music fans’ regular rotations
for a few months already. If the Timberwolves could only find two such
heavy hitters to join KG, we might have a championship basketball team,
and not just a championship music scene. 8 p.m. $10. 18+. 1308 4th
St. SE, Mpls. 612-604-0222. STEVE MCPHERSON

Sex Diary of an Infidel
Penumbra Theatre

This is one of the more promising ideas at Penumbra Theatre Company in
quite some time. Michael Gurr’s “Sex Diary of an Infidel”
revolves around hotshot journalist Jean, highly acclaimed for reporting
on a teenage junkie. Trying to ring up another notch on her belt, she
and photographer/boyfriend Martin go to Manila, investigating Australian
involvement in the sex tourism trade. As the story gets going, Max, an
Australian pimp and boss/occasional lover of Filipino transsexual Toni,
becomes entangled with Jean and Martin, respectively. For good measure,
Toni, who’s saving up for a sex–change operation, charges
money to be photographed, even by news photographers. Studying Toni for
Jean’s report, Martin gets emotionally attached and winds up queering
his job with Jean, who, it turns out, doesn’t much mind, as she’s
enjoying the company of her ex, Max. Talk about your weird soap operas.
With snappy dialogue and minimal plot, this could be a truly audacious
adventure. In this production artistic director Lou Bellamy throws a real
curve ball: he’s taking time off from directing. None of the cast
are company members; only one actor, Phil Kilbourne (“Dinah Was,”
“Black Eagles”), has worked there before. Alexis Camins, Laura
Esping, Casey Greig, Sam L. Landman and Carolyn Pool make their Penumbra
debut. Ching Valdes-Aran directs. This is the play’s American premiere.
Through Mar. 5. Wed. 10 a.m.; Thu. 7:30 p.m.; Fri. 8 p.m.; Sat. 2 &
8 p.m.; Sun. 2 & 7:30 p.m. $32. 270 N. Kent St., St. Paul. 651-224-3180.
DWIGHT HOBBES

Heidi Arneson
Patrick’s Cabaret

An originator of one-person performance, Heidi Arneson has made her indelible
mark on Twin Cities theater. She’s entertained audiences with the
autobiographical “Da Grade School” and “Ten Bedroom
Heart,” meditated on female power as “The Snake Lady,”
and imagined a psychic-punk resistance to a completely corporatized future
in “Queen of Block E.” Within six months of the 9/11 attacks,
Arneson responded with the emotionally provocative “Homeland Insecurity.”
Also an inspiring teacher, Arneson is taking her mind-expanding techniques
for writing and creating performance into Minnesota prisons. She returns
to the stage with some of her recently released students, who tell previously
silenced stories that we all need to know. Also Sat. Feb. 11. 8 p.m.
$7. 3010 Minnehaha Ave. S., Mpls. 612-721-3595. LYDIA HOWELL

Missing Numbers CD Release
400 Bar

Where Bellwether’s breath-fogged alt.country might have cut you
like a razorblade and left you to bleed out in the tub on a frigid Iron
Range morning, guitarist/vocalist Jimmy Peterson’s new project,
Missing Numbers, is more likely to wrap you up with a rusty guitar string
and leave you swinging in the woodshed out back on a moonless Minneapolis
night. Their debut album on Eclectone Records was dark and menacing—refreshingly
so—but it was only a first step compared to their Susstones debut
No Anecdote. Guitarist Casey Gooby has traded fire-breathing for
fire-eating, holding himself in check to make room for barroom sax and
trumpet, which cut through the dusty and blown-out sound of Peterson’s
weathered voice. They’re really not so different than your favorite
local bar band—if your local bar happens to be in Twin Peaks. The
standout here? “Cheaper by the Ton,” whose cycling keyboard
melody should probably be quarantined as an infectious biological weapon.
Sometimes it seems like this town is full of almost-made-its: bands that
seemed to have everything going for them but never really got that last
push. But, in the end, what is making it? A lot of it seems like a big
old headache, and as Peterson avers, “Now that we don’t give
a fuck, it’s more fun.” You might dream of doing what you
love as a means to making a living, but sometimes a job’s just a
job, and as Mark Mallman has pointed out, “It’s not even a
dirty job that somebody has to do; it’s just a dirty job.”
Remember when music was just music? Not promotion and demographics and
marketing? So do Missing Numbers. Raise a glass to giving in and not giving
a you-know-what. With Mood Swings and Porcupine. 8 p.m. $5. 21+. 400
Cedar Ave. S., Mpls. 612-332-2903. MCPHERSON

Singing Valentines
Minneapolis & St. Paul

The balcony. The serenade. Who wouldn’t love to have that happen
to them? If you’re too timid to express in song your love or extreme
like face to face, you can hire the College of St. Catherine Women’s
Choir to do it for you. The choir is offering to surprise your sweetheart
with a song and a rose, delivered at work, home or at a restaurant. The
cost of a live serenade is $25; over the phone it’s $15. In-person
deliveries will be made to downtown St. Paul, Highland, Merriam Park,
Mac-Groveland, Summit Hill and University Avenue neighborhoods, as well
as nearby neighborhoods in Minneapolis. A limited number will be scheduled,
so order soon. Delivered Feb. 13 & 14. To order go to
www.stkate.edu. REBECCA THURN

Immigrants’ Rights March
Chicago & Lake, Minneapolis

Politicians are already gearing up for 2006 re-election, and when not
milking terrorism for votes, they’re scapegoating immigrants. Governor
Tim Pawlenty is imitating Congress with his own anti-immigrant legislation,
which put a patina of “national security” over racial-profiling.
Meanwhile, immigrants, with or without documentation, flee union-busting
death squads, human rights abuses and U.S. corporate takeovers of their
homeland economies. On Sunday local churches, labor unions, civil liberties
and immigrants’ rights groups are marching in solidarity with our
newest neighbors. 2 p.m. Starts at E. Lake St. & Chicago Ave. S.,
goes north on Bloomington Ave. S. and ends at the American Indian Center,
1520 E. Franklin Ave., Mpls. 612-276-0788 ext. 11. HOWELL

24th Annual Battle of the Jug Bands
Cabooze

This is a shameless self-promotion. The staff of Pulse will be performing
as part of the Battle of the Jug Bands. The retro hippie hootenany and
potluck gets more popular every year. This year, 32 bands vied for 23
spots. There’s high-toned bribing of judges, and Judy Larson always
tries to steal the prized Waffle Iron that’s awarded to the lucky
winner. Great fun! The Pulsations perform around 3 p.m. 12:30 - 8 p.m.
Free, donations appreciated. 21+ 917 Cedar Ave. JugBandBattle.net.
ED FELIEN

Support local sentenced human rights activists
St. Stephen’s Church

The week after a military jury in Colorado decided not to jail a U.S.
Army interrogator after finding him guilty of negligent homocide in the
death of an Iraqi prisoner, a federal magistrate in Columbus, Ga., has
sentenced dozens of nonviolent human rights activists to prison, including
two from Minnesota and five from Wisconsin. Minnesotans Sam Foster and
Steve Clemens were sentenced to two and three months in prison, respectively,
for trespassing in November at Fort Benning, home to the U.S. Army’s
notorious School of the Americas (SOA)—recently renamed the “Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.” Frequent Pulse contributor
John LaForge of Nukewatch was sentenced to six months in prison. After
the school’s training manuals—which outlined vicious and illegal
interrogation methods—were unearthed by activists in the 1990s,
the school was forced to admit that it was teaching torture. Not everyone
can afford to cross the line at the SOA, but everyone can support those
who do. This gathering at St. Stephen’s Church offers a brief background
on the SOA, testimony from Steve and Sam, music and special guests. Donations
to help cover the expense of their witness will be collected and appreciated.
2 p.m. 22nd St. & Clinton Ave. S., Mpls. SOAW.org.
SID PRANKE

B3 Organ Night
The Artists’ Quarter

Candy hearts, blah blah blah, chocolate, blah blah blah, roses, etc. It’s
too cold here to go to a romantic overlook and make out in the car on
Valentine’s Day, and all those fancy-schmancy restaurants are already
booked, so why not do something original and treat your sweetie to some
serious soul and groove down at the Artists’ Quarter? I’ve
got a newsflash for all you cats who haven’t been digging in the
crates for vintage Jimmy Smith and Lonnie Liston Smith LPs: B3 is for
lovers. The AQ is a low-ceilinged and appropriately dark (yet not dingy)
jewel of a jazz club, easily the equal of the Village Vanguard in vibe
and comfort, if not in historic import. Downtown Bill Brown, Gary Berg,
Billy Franze and Kenny Horst are there every Tuesday for your listening
pleasure, and maybe you’ve been taking them for granted. So take
my advice: Get out your best pinstriped suit or little black dress, pick
up some roses and a Whitman sampler at SuperAmerica, grab your best guy
or gal and make your way to downtown Saint Paul for a stiff martini (shaken,
not stirred, two olives) and the warbly, woody tones of the 61 swell and
61 great keys–122 notes of Hammond Organ delight. 9 p.m. $3.
21+. 408 St. Peter St., St. Paul. 651-292-1359. MCPHERSON